HANDLING SCHEDULING REQUEST COLLISIONS WITH AN ACK/NACK REPETITION SIGNAL

• US 20130235768A1
• Filed: 03/12/2012
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Earnshaw, Andrew Mark, Cai, Zhijun
• Granted Patent: US 9,065,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/280
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/56 with provision for simultaneous communication in two directions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1858 Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of acknowledgement message
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1268 of uplink data flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network

Abstract

Systems and methods for handling of scheduling request collisions with an ACK/NACK repetition signal are provided. A pending scheduling request may be refrained from being transmitted due to the collision. The SR counter may be refrained from incrementing and the SR prohibit timer may be refrained from starting such that additional latency is not introduced into the scheduling request procedure. Alternatively, a pending scheduling request may be transmitted with the ACK/NACK repetition signal in the same subframe when the collision occurs. The ACK/NACK repetition signal may be transmitted on the SR PUCCH resource to indicate a positive scheduling request. If there is no pending scheduling request to be transmitted, the ACK/NACK repetition signal may be transmitted on the ACK/NACK PUCCH resource.

Claims

1. A method in a user equipment (UE) comprising:

determining that a pending scheduling request (SR) transmission collides with a transmission of an acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signal, the ACK/NACK signal being part of an ACK/NACK repetition sequence;

responsive to the determining, refraining from transmitting the pending SR transmission; and

responsive to the determining, refraining from incrementing an SR counter.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to the determining, refraining from instructing a physical layer of the UE to signal the pending SR.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to the determining, refraining from starting an SR prohibit timer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the SR prohibit timer has a value equal to an SR period multiplied by an integer in a range from 0 to 7, inclusive.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a subsequent SR transmission.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the subsequent SR transmission is transmitted on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that a PUCCH resource is available for the pending SR transmission prior to determining that the pending SR transmission collides with the ACK/NACK signal.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is transmitted on an uplink in response to a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the ACK/NACK repetition sequence comprises the ACK/NACK signal repeated 2, 4, or 6 times in consecutive uplink subframes.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the SR counter has an integer value in a range from 0 to a maximum SR transmission number, inclusive.

11. A method in a user equipment (UE) comprising:

determining that a pending scheduling request (SR) transmission collides with a transmission of an acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signal, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is a part of an ACK/NACK repetition sequence;

transmitting the pending SR transmission and the ACK/NACK signal in the same subframe.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is transmitted on an uplink in response to a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the ACK/NACK repetition sequence comprises the ACK/NACK signal repeated 2, 4, or 6 times in consecutive uplink subframes.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein an SR PUCCH resource is used by the UE to transmit the ACK/NACK signal.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising incrementing an SR counter by one.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the SR counter has an integer value in a range from 0 to a maximum SR transmission number, inclusive.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising instructing a physical layer of the UE to signal SR on PUCCH.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising starting an SR prohibit timer.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the SR prohibit timer has a value equal to an SR period multiplied by an integer in a range from 0 to 7, inclusive.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the UE operates in a frequency division duplexing (FDD) mode or in a time division duplexing (TDD) mode.

21. A user equipment (UE) comprising one or more processors configured to:

determine that a pending scheduling request (SR) transmission collides with a transmission of an acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signal, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is a part of an ACK/NACK repetition sequence; and

responsive to the determining, refraining from transmitting the pending SR transmission and refraining from incrementing an SR counter.

22. The user equipment of claim 21, the one or more processors further configured to, responsive to the determining, refrain from instructing a physical layer of the UE to signal the pending SR.

23. The user equipment of claim 21, the one or more processors further configured to, responsive to the determining, refrain from starting an SR prohibit timer.

24. The user equipment of claim 23, wherein the SR prohibit timer has a value equal to an SR period multiplied by an integer in a range from 0 to 7, inclusive.

25. The user equipment of claim 21, the one or more processors further configured to transmit a subsequent SR transmission.

26. The user equipment of claim 25, the one or more processors further configured to transmit the subsequent SR transmission on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

27. The user equipment of claim 21, wherein the UE is configured to determine that a PUCCH resource is available for the pending SR transmission prior to determining that the pending SR transmission collides with the ACK/NACK signal.

28. The user equipment of claim 21, wherein the UE is configured to transmit the ACK/NACK signal on an uplink in response to a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception.

29. The user equipment of claim 21, wherein the ACK/NACK repetition sequence comprises the ACK/NACK signal repeated 2, 4, or 6 times in consecutive uplink subframes.

30. The user equipment of claim 21, wherein the SR counter has an integer value in a range from 0 to a maximum SR transmission number, inclusive.

31. A user equipment (UE) comprising one or more processors configured to:

determine that a pending scheduling request (SR) transmission collides with a transmission of an acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signal, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is a part of an ACK/NACK repetition sequence; and

transmit the pending SR transmission and the ACK/NACK signal in the same subframe.

32. The user equipment of claim 31, wherein the UE is configured to transmit the ACK/NACK signal on an uplink in response to a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception.

33. The user equipment of claim 31, wherein the ACK/NACK repetition sequence comprises the ACK/NACK signal repeated 2, 4, or 6 times in consecutive uplink subframes.

34. The user equipment of claim 31, wherein the UE transmits the ACK/NACK signal using an SR PUCCH resource.

35. The user equipment of claim 31, the one or more processors further configured to increment an SR counter by one.

36. The user equipment of claim 35, wherein the SR counter has an integer value in a range from 0 to a maximum SR transmission number, inclusive.

37. The user equipment of claim 31, the one or more processors further configured to instruct a physical layer of the UE to signal SR on PUCCH.

38. The user equipment of claim 31, the one or more processors further configured to start an SR prohibit timer.

39. The user equipment of claim 38, wherein the SR prohibit timer has a value equal to an SR period multiplied by an integer in a range from 0 to 7, inclusive.

40. The user equipment of claim 31, wherein the UE operates in a frequency division duplexing (FDD) mode or in a time division duplexing (TDD) mode.

41. A base station device comprising one or more processors configured to:

receive an acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signal from a UE on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), wherein the ACK/NACK signal is a part of an ACK/NACK repetition sequence; and

determine that a scheduling request (SR) from the UE is received in the same subframe as the ACK/NACK signal.

42. The base station device of claim 41, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is received from the UE on the PUCCH in response to a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission from the base station device.

43. The base station device of claim 41, wherein the ACK/NACK repetition sequence comprises the ACK/NACK signal repeated 2, 4, or 6 times in consecutive uplink subframes.

44. The base station device of claim 41, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is received on an SR PUCCH resource.

45. The base station device of claim 44, wherein the SR PUCCH resource is assigned for the UE by the base station device.

46. The base station device of claim 41, wherein the base station device operates in a frequency division duplexing (FDD) mode or in a time division duplexing (TDD) mode.

47. The base station device of claim 41, the one or more processors further configured to decode the ACK/NACK signal.